a whole new world (dont you dare close your eyes)

india -as i see it- is very hard to describe, but thats only because its so hard to understand. one of the speakers who came last week said "for everything you learn about india, the opposite is also true." we were told to dress modestly and always cover our shoulders, but i've seen indian women wearing tank tops and sleeveless dresses and they're not so modest in commercials and ads. we were also warned against public displays of affection, but this is the country that created the kama sutra!

corruption is another confusing issue. india is considered a spiritual center of the world, deeply rooted in its religious values and traditions, yet many government officials and businessmen are as corrupt as they are in america, if not more so. apparently the people who are hired to clean the piles upon piles of garbage from the streets just pay off the officials they're supposed to report to with part of their salary, so they get free money and india stays dirty. public bus drivers do the same to get liscenses without taking any sort of driving test, which doesn't help the already miserable traffic plagueing india's streets and causes the deaths of thousands of people every year. speaking of traffic.. crossing the street my first week here was probably the scariest thing i've ever had to do. whoever honks the most earns the right of way and no driver ever pays attention to pedestrians. rachel said she felt like she was playing frogger. with her life. one of the ccs staff members told us the safest way to cross the street is with a cow because nobody would ever dare to come near it.

over the past couple weeks i've come to realize that my logic just doesn't apply here. like the cow thing. back in the day cows were a source of milk, transportation, and plowing the fields, so they were deemed sacred creatures. now we use planes/trains/automobiles and we have machines for working the fields. the cows are everywhere, roaming around aimlessly, while a quarter of the population goes hungry! it doesn't make sense to me. i just want a burger!

the thing about india is, you can't really make generalizations because its so damn big. there are dozens of religions practised, hundreds of different languages spoken, more cultural variations (dance, rituals, food, values, ect.)than you can imagine. the differences from region to region are so vast that its hard to imagine how india can be unified at all. my mind is on the verge of explosion because im trying to absorb as much of what i'm learning/seeing here as i can. unfortunately, you can't fit thousands of years of history into 5 weeks of living in delhi.
guess that means i'll have to come back :)